


Lets Dispel this Fiction

by CrubioIsLoveCrubioIsLife (orphan_account)



Category: Political RPF - US 21st c.
Genre: Crubio, M/M, Marco Rubio - Freeform, Ted Cruz - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-20
Updated: 2016-06-08
Packaged: 2018-06-09 13:07:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,065
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6908401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/CrubioIsLoveCrubioIsLife
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A 16 year old Marco Rubio leaves his home state of Florida and moves to Texas. From there, his passion of politics makes him join the debate club at his new high school. He was able to get along with everyone in his conservative debate team except for one particular person, Ted Cruz. Initially, Marco and Ted’s personalities clashed, until Marco develops an unwavering crush on his older teammate and Ted reciprocates.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The italicized parts are when Marco is speaking in Spanish (assuming he mostly spoke Spanish back at home).  
> This also takes place in present day even though they're young (but this is an AU so it doesn't really matter)

There were boxes upon boxes stacked inside the cramped living room, most of the furniture still in them. Aside from the boxes, the floors and walls were completely bare.

This was Marco Rubio’s new home, a modest apartment. It was a huge difference from the three bedroom house in Florida he lived in previously. His father said it was the only reasonable place they could move to that was close enough to his new job. Marco walked towards the nearest window and looked through the blinds. From the eighth floor, he could see his parents guiding the movers to move the remaining furniture into the apartment.

The Floridian-born Cuban was going to need time to get used to his new home in Texas since it was quite a change from Florida. Not only that; he was going to attend a new high school.

Since Marco grew up in and spent his entire life in Florida, he had large groups of friends from his hometown. His easygoing and friendly nature allowed him to make friends quickly, so dropping all of them to move to Texas was quite unfortunate for him, especially since he had no friends from this state. Maybe that would change once he attended school, he had no problem getting to know people.

Marco absently sat on of the boxes. He suddenly heard a tear and dropped down on his bottom.

“Oh shit,” He cursed. He looked down and saw that there was nothing in that particular box. His optimistic nature wasn’t doing anything for him at this moment.

“ _What are you doing, Marco? Aren’t you going to help us move the rest of our belongings_?”

He heard his mother’s voice from the hallway outside of the living room he was in. He could hear the distant footsteps of the movers as well.

“Yeah, yeah.” He immediately got to his feet, rubbing his bottom from the pain, “ _I was just looking around the house._ ”

“ _There’s nothing to look at around here. It’s a two and a half room apartment._ ” His mother said, standing at the front door, “ _Now stop being lazy and help us._ ”

Marco nodded.

“ _You’re going to need plenty of rest for school tomorrow. So we’ll try to finish as much as we can today._ ”

Yes, Marco was already going to have to attend school tomorrow, much to his chagrin. He insisted that he start a week later so he could adjust to the sudden change, but his mother and father were unwavering. His parents pushed him hard when it came to school, his 2.1 GPA was very telling of that. Marco knew he wasn’t stupid; he just hated school. He didn’t bother doing the work. The only things that kept him going to school were his friends and his old debate club. It was something he was very passionate about; he loved politics and he loved debating with other people. Since all of that was gone, he had nothing to be excited for when it came to school.

**xxxxxxx**

Marco’s father stopped right in front of his new school. The dark haired teen stared at the building ahead beside them. He saw students, backpacks and books in hand, quickly heading to their classes.

“ _Alright see you, dad._ ” Marco said. When he was about to open the door to get out, his father spoke up.

“ _Don’t try skipping this time._ ” His father said back, “ _We’ll make sure to keep in check with the school counselor this time._ ”

Marco sighed.

“ _and I mean every day, for the rest of the school year._ ” His father added. Marco grumbled under his breath; his father was doing this on purpose to get under his skin.

“ _Fine; I won’t skip. I’ll find something fun to do to pass the time_.” Marco replied.

“ _And you’ll find a tutor to help you study.”_

“Really, dad??” He said in English, his exasperation not hidden in his voice. 

“ _Yes, Marco._ ”

“ _But-_ ”

“ _I’m only doing this so you can graduate with your class. Trust me, you don’t want to fail the 11th grade. Having a tutor will motivate you more to study, since you never study on your own._ ”

“ _Ok; I’ll do it_.”

“ _I hope you’re not lying._ ”

“Dad!” Marco exclaimed, his frustration growing, “ _I’m not. I’m really going to, I swear. I have a perfect GPA right now, I’ll keep it up this time._ ”

Marco was right; while he transferred his credits from his Florida high school to this one; his GPA never transferred as he was allowed to start fresh.

Before Marco entered the school building; he clutched onto his cross necklace before placing it under his shirt. He was supposed to go to the front office to collect his class schedule. His parents never had a chance to meet with the school ahead of time since they just moved in yesterday. They were going to do it later on this week so Marco could get situated with everything.

He looked around, skimming the particular hallway he was in. The usual hustle bustle of students heading to their first class and the loudness amongst them almost caught his attention. When he turned around to continue walking to his destination, he bumped headfirst into someone. He lost his footing and fell backwards.  
Marco had no idea where his sudden onslaught of clumsiness came from.

“S-sorry!” Marco nervously said. What a great way to start the first day. He looked up to see who he bumped into exactly.

He was a guy who looked around his age. He had dark hair and brown eyes. He wore light blue jeans and a long sleeved red plaid shirt which fit his thin build. The guy didn’t look too pleased as there were papers scattered around him. After what felt like an eternity, Marco spoke up again to break the awkward silence.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry.” Marco repeated, realizing that he knocked the guy’s papers off of his hands when he bumped into him.

“It’s fine.” The guy said, his voice equally matching his stern body language. When Marco tried grabbing some of the papers, he motioned for Marco to stop.

Marco dusted his pants as he got to his feet, “Do you by any chance know where the front office is?”

The guy smirked, letting out a small grin. He immediately went back to his serious expression. Marco tensed, wondering what that was all about. When he stacked his papers, he stood up, reaching Marco’s height.

“It’s right beside you.”

Marco’s eyes widened when he saw a large entrance to the left of him with the words, Front Office, written above it. It was just a couple of feet away from him.

“Wow, I feel stupid.” Marco laughed.

“It happens.” The guy replied, “They have school maps inside, just in case people like you don’t get into the habit of losing their way around here.”

When Marco held his finger up to say something, the guy immediately walked past him, heading to his class.

People like me? He had no idea if that guy was trying to be condescending or not. He had a snooty tone to him though; maybe he was angry that Marco so ungracefully bumped into him. Marco closed his mouth and placed his hand down, not realizing he was frozen in that particular stance.

He shook his head before heading towards the office. It was going to be a long day.


	2. Chapter 2

Once Marco grabbed his schedule from the front office, he grabbed a map as well. He wouldn’t forget to after that strange encounter with that guy he bumped into. He glanced at the schedule; him and his parents had registered him into the school and signed him up for classes ahead of time so he would have classes to go to. The dark haired Cuban glanced at his schedule as he made his way out of the office.

There was a total of eight classes he signed up for: trigonometry, U.S government, physics, English, P.E, Art, Psychology, and a study hall block. The only class he remotely looked forward to was U.S government, maybe P.E, since he was fairly good at sports, especially football. His first class was trigonometry; he flipped to the school map to see where the room would be located.

Marco flinched and nearly dropped his papers when he felt someone tap him on the shoulder. He spun back and saw that it was a noticeably tall guy; he thought for a second it would be the same guy from earlier. He dismissed the silly thought from his head.

“Hey, are you new here?” the guy asked. He was tall, lanky, and awkward looking. He wore a tucked in dress shirt with light jeans. He had dark brown hair and square glasses that masked his eyes.

“…Yes,” Marco replied, a bit startled.

“I figured,” The guy quietly said, then continued in a louder voice, “The guy you bumped into…”

“What about him?” Marco raised his eyebrows.

“It’s best if you avoid him as much as you can. He’s an asshole to everyone.”

Rubio hesitated, creating an awkward silence between the two. He wasn’t surprised, the guy did come off as cold. The tall guy scratched the back of his head, trying to continue the conversation. He extended his hand to give Marco a handshake.

“My name is Jeb,” Jeb said, a bit too enthusiastically. Marco was taken aback by the firm and aggressive handshake, but returned it as well, “We have the same homeroom so we can walk together.”

“Cool. Guess I don’t have to worry about finding my way, “The shorter male replied, “I’m Marco by the way.”

They continued to introduce themselves, telling each other where they came from. Marco took a liking to Jeb after he realized Jeb lived in Florida for some time. It was great common talking ground for both of them. Once they reached their trigonometry class, the subject matter suddenly switched back to the guy Marco bumped into.

“So who is he exactly?” Marco asked. He couldn’t blame himself for bringing it up randomly; his curiosity got the better of him.

“Ted Cruz,” Jeb Bush said, knowing who Marco was referring to, “He’s the smartest kid in the school and he makes sure to flaunt it. Most of the school, except for the teachers, don’t like him. He looks down on people who he thinks aren’t intelligent enough.”

“Wow, he sounds pleasant.” 

“Yeah tell me about it,” Jeb continued, noting the sarcasm, “He refuses to study with kids that ‘aren’t on his level of intellect’. Those were actual words said by him.”

Marco nodded. It all made sense now; that Ted Cruz guy was probably trying to call him stupid for not noticing the front office.  

“He once called me a vapid, no-good Bush,” Jeb replied; his older brother wasn’t the smartest guy around and he was known for that, having graduated with a 2.3 gpa. Ted made sure to use that against him.

Marco slightly laughed, amused that someone could get off on making people feel bad for not being supposedly as intellectual as them, “You must know him well then.”

“We’re on the same debate team actually. We only tolerate him cause he wins us competitions.”

Marco’s eyes widened. _Did he say debate team?_

“Wait this school has a debate team?!” Marco said, a little too excitedly. A few people in the class stared at him, startled from his loud voice. Rubio let out a sheepish smile, a bit embarrassed from his sudden outburst.

“Yeah, we’re only five members. We’re recruiting new people too since two old members left.”

“…I wonder why.” Marco quietly said. He noted that Ted could be the reason as to why they left. Marco wasn’t going to say anything until he realized that he needed something that gave him the incentive to come to school. He loved politics and he loved debating them with other people; not to mention he had a lot of fun back at his old debate team. Marco thought was a decent debater, his friends back at home would complement his delivery and the fact that he did a lot of research on the topics he debated about. Someone like Ted Cruz wouldn’t turn him away from that, maybe he could use this as an opportunity to kick that guy off his pedestal.

“I’ll join, “Marco said, “I was actually in a debate team at my old high school.”

“Great! We actually have a club meeting right after school, room B16 in the basement.” Jeb replied.

School surprisingly went by quite fast for Marco. His ability to make a friend on the first day might have contributed to that; he even got to meet a debate club member who went by John Kasich. He was just as friendly as Jeb, albeit less awkward. Maybe school wouldn’t be so bad after all.

Marco looked down at his crinkly school map, it having been stuffed into pocket during the day, to look for room B16. Once he found the room, which was situated at the end of the hallway, he politely knocked on the door. He peered through the small window of the door.

Marco backed away when he saw Kasich open it.

“Who is it?” He heard a voice from inside the room.

“It’s Marco; he’s just in time actually.” Kasich replied.

Kasich stepped aside to let Marco in. The room looked like any old regular classroom; he saw three of the other members sitting in or on top of the desks. He saw no sign of Ted Cruz.

“Okay guys, this is our new member – I mean, possible new member – Marco Rubio.” Jeb said, motioning the other two to quiet down.

“D-do I introduce myself?” Marco said, resisting the urge to smile. He did that way too often; it was a habit of his.

“Yeah, go ahead.” Kasich replied.

“I’m Marco Rubio and I’m from Florida. It’s my first day here and I was actually part of the debate team in my old school,” He said, “Uhh…I’m a strong conservative, both socially and fiscally, and I’ve always had a passion for politics.”

“Great; this is Rand Paul.” Jeb said, motioning to the short guy who sat on the desk next to his. Rand gave him a short but cool wave. He motioned to the African American guy next to Rand Paul, “and this is Ben Carson.”

The four got more of a chance to acquaint themselves with Marco. The team was quite welcoming; they didn’t take themselves too seriously. To Marco’s luck, each member had a distinct personality, so he wouldn’t get names mixed up. Ben Carson was soft-spoken, but intelligent and principled. He had recently taken up debating but had a sense of authenticity about him. Rand Paul was sarcastic and blunt, but had a charm to him. Rand called himself a libertarian and carried that as a badge of honor; he often quoted lines of the constitution to make his points. Kasich was the reasonable and negotiable one of the group. It made sense since his political views were more moderate when compared to the other members of the team. Finally, Jeb was the clumsy and awkward guy of the group. His older brother, a graduate of the high school, was popular during his years of high school. He overshadowed Jeb so people often referred to him as George Bush’s nerdy and awkward little brother. In terms of political views, Jeb was less moderate than Kasich, but not as conservative as Marco Rubio.

Marco saw the doorknob of the classroom door move before the door opened.

Everyone’s attention was at the door when they saw none other than Ted Cruz walk in. Marco’s heartbeat sped up; the guy had an intimidating aura about him, but he wasn’t going to let that bother him. He was confident he would bring his ego down.

“Took him long enough.” Rand said, loud enough for Ted to hear. Marco could tell Rand didn’t think of him too favorably either.

“I had a phone call with my dad.” Ted replied, waving his cellphone. He didn’t look too pleased either. Marco caught his attention, “Who’s…”

“That’s Marco Rubio; he just moved here from Florida and he wants to join our team.”

Ted Cruz immediately remembered him as the guy who bumped into him. He paused, examining Marco from top to bottom.

“I was going to ask him a few questions to see if he’s qualified-” Jeb began, but got interrupted by Ted.

“I’ll ask them.”

Marco raised his eyebrows. _Oh great._ He was going to be the one to decide whether he was able to join the team or not. He could feel sweat gather at the tip of his forehead.

Jeb shrugged as Rand rolled his eyes.

Ted motioned everyone else to leave the classroom, except for Marco. Rubio wondered who exactly made him boss, but he didn’t want to ask that. That would certainly break his chances of joining. Ted closed the door so the four wouldn’t hear them.

“Ted is going to tear him apart.” Kasich said to the other three.

“It won’t be that bad, Marco seems like he’s good at this.” Ben Carson said.

“You could have at least insist that you ask the questions, Jeb.” Rand said. Jeb was too soft-hearted and sometimes even a pushover for his own good, “He’s not going to want to let Marco in no matter what he does and we really need new members.”

“Hey, you’re better at doing that than I am. Why didn’t you convince him?” Jeb urged him.

**xxxxxxx**

Marco starred at Ted as the older student flipped through several sheets of papers. He was clearly looking for something. Marco’s nervousness wouldn’t go away no matter how much times he tried to calm himself down. He barely exchanged words with this guy, but he already despised him. Jeb was right; the guy did come off as an asshole. His calculated and uppity smirk, the overconfident stride he had to his walk, and the condensation to his voice, all factored into that.

“What’s your name again?” Ted asked, after pulling out a sheet of paper.

“M-Marco Rubio.” He cursed himself for stuttering so easily; he cleared his throat, “Just call me Marco.”

_Of course, that’s my first name…what else would he call me? Mark?_

Marco cursed himself for having such silly thoughts at a time like this. He never got so nervous.

“…You’re in the 10th grade, right?”

“11th.” Marco corrected him; he looked young for his age so he wasn’t surprised at his mistake. Ted gave him a briefly aggravated look before skimming through the paper he held. _Yes, how dare I correct you?_

“You look a little nervous, Marco.”

“I’m not; it’s just a little hot in here.” Marco lied, wiping his sleeve across his forehead. What he would do to have a bottle of cold water right now.

“Okay, the first question I’ll give to you will be easy.” Ted replied.

Marco nodded, a bit surprised at this. Maybe he wouldn’t be as hard on him because they needed new members, or at least Marco thought Ted wanted one.

“Name 15 of the 33 amendments and briefly describe each of  them.”

Marco gave out a stonefaced expression. He could feel more sweat gather on his forehead. _He can’t be serious, right?_ He almost cursed out loud. Of all the possible questions he had to ask this one. He recognized all of the amendments and could implement them into his debates if he had the list of them with him, but the problem was he didn’t know most of them by heart, let alone 15. _Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck. Easy question, my ass._

“…Uhh why is that necessary exactly?”

Ted couldn’t help but let out a small chuckle. Marco raised his eyebrows.

“You mean you don’t know any of them?”

“I do. I just don’t remember them by heart.” Marco replied.

“Well that’s kind of important to know if you want to join.”

“If I have a list of them with me, I can easily incorporate them when I debate. I’ve done it before at my old debate team.” Marco argued.

“But you’re in my debate team now.” Ted said.

“So? Memorizing a few pages of the constitution isn’t necessary to be good at debating.” Marco said; he was getting ticked off.

Ted couldn’t believe the audacity of this guy. He had a lot of nerve.

“What was your GPA at your old school?”

Marco couldn’t help but to scoff. Was he really changing the subject? _Why did any of this matter?_

“I get it. You don’t want me in your club.” Marco said, in an exasperated tone.

“I don’t know how they did things at your old school, but it seems like they were too lenient on you.”

“People thought was pretty good at what I did.” Marco stood up, “I guess I’m too stupid to please someone as elitist as you.”

Ted was silent for a few seconds; he tried regaining his composure. He wasn’t going to let some snot-nosed Florida boy get to him.

“You can leave then.” He finally said.

“Fine.” Marco said, anger surfacing on his voice. He snatched his backpack up and marched towards the door. He sped past the four other members, without saying bye to them.

 


	3. Chapter 3

After a short-lived conversation about how the first day of school went with his mother, Marco was completely silent the entire time during the car ride home. He couldn’t help it; he was in a bad mood. He thought he would get to join a debate club and possibly have fun at school, but that dream was immediately whisked away thanks to a certain person. Marco Rubio absently clenched his fists; he was hardly one to get worked up over things, but when he did, he went off in a tirade. He just didn’t want to do it now with his mom in the car; that would be embarrassing.

He leaned against the window, the encounter with Ted playing over and over again in his head. He wanted to get it out of his mind and move onto more important things, like how he was going to face Jeb tomorrow after bailing out on all of them without saying anything. But he couldn’t. It was Ted’s mission to keep him from joining the club; he assumed the older guy didn’t like him, judging from their first encounter. He remembered what Jeb told him. He told him that Ted despised people that weren’t smart enough for him. Marco knew he wasn’t stupid; Ted just wanted to believe that Marco was stupid. That’s why he gave him a hard question during his tryout for the team. He didn’t want to give him a chance to prove himself.

“Fucking asshole,” Marco mumbled to himself.

“What was that?” His mother asked, in English.

Marco’s face paled, afraid that he cursed a bit too loud, “ _N-nothing, Mom.”_

“ _If you insist,”_ She replied.

After he got home, he helped organize the remaining furniture scattered around the living room. As he continued to do housework, he thought about other extra curriculars he could do. Maybe he could join a sports team, preferably soccer or football. He liked playing both sports during his spare time. He didn’t get the chance to back at his old school since the debate club took up all of his time. Marco nodded to himself; he thought that was a great idea. It was barely a month into school, so maybe he could still try out. That would take his mind off of what happened and he would have something fun to do during school.

**xxxxxxx**

“What?!” Marco exclaimed, a bit too dramatic for his liking.

“Yes, I’m sorry…Mr...” A man behind the desk of the front office hesitated, not knowing what to call the young man.

“Marco,” He corrected him.

“I’m sorry Marco, but tryouts for both the soccer and football teams ended a month ago, during late August,” The man continued.

Marco had to try his best to refrain from groaning out loud. He surely hoped he would get to do something to his liking; joining a sports team was his last resort. At his old school, tryouts didn’t start until September and they persisted until the end of the month. Now he was going have to endure school without anything remotely enjoyable to do and find a tutor, all at the same time.

“So they don’t even have late tryouts?” His desperation sinking in.

“No, they don’t,” The man chuckled, catching on to Marco’s anxious tone of voice, “The reason why we do tryouts so early is because of the long process: accepting good players, ordering the custom made uniforms, and registering all of the team members in our system. There’s always next year.”

Rubio regained his composure. There was nothing the school could do to accommodate him for late tryouts, so it was pointless to raise a big fuss. He looked at his watch; it was almost 9:00, which meant it was time to go to his first class.

“Thanks anyways,” Marco said before heading out of the office. He didn’t want to come off as rude.

He pulled his map and schedule out of his pocket, heading to his first class of the day, Government. Never did he feel so grouchy, all he wanted to do right now was to go home.

“What happened with you yesterday?”

Marco turned back and saw Jeb and Kasich behind him. Marco slowed down, letting the two males walk beside him.

“Yeah, you stormed out without saying anything,” Jeb added.

“I don’t really want to talk about it,” Marco replied, but he did anyways, “How do you deal with him? I’ve never been so infuriated with a person before.”

“Wow, what did he do to you?” Jeb noticed Marco’s sudden change of expression, “Like I know he didn’t accept you, but I’m curious. You look really mad.”

“He asked me to recite 15 amendments by heart.” Marco replied.

“That’s weird. He’s never done that to others whenever he was the one accepting new people.” Kasich added.

“I knew it!” Marco exclaimed, “He only did that so it would be impossible for me to join. What kind of person has the time to memorize that? It’s not like I’m trying out for an actual position in politics like the senate, it’s just a high school club. He knew what he was doing; he wanted to humiliate me on purpose and make me look like an idiot! You know what, I feel bad for you guys. You have to deal with that asshole everyday-”

Marco immediately stopped when he saw Ted Cruz whiz right past him alongside a friend of his. He was surprised, but not bothered.

“I don’t think he heard you,” Jeb sarcastically said. The two merely amused at Rubio’s sudden rant.

Marco shrugged, “I don’t care. I want him to know I don’t like him.”

**xxxxxxxx**

Once Marco reached his class, which Jeb nor Kasich were a part of unfortunately. He pushed open the door. He inwardly groaned when he saw that nearly all of the desks were filled; that’s what he got for coming to class late. It was a minute or two before class would start so the room was loud with people talking amongst themselves. Rubio scanned the class to look for an empty desk to sit in, his eyes stopped when he saw Ted Cruz amongst the people sitting in desks. He sat in the back row; he was glancing at his book he placed on his desk and writing notes in a notebook beside it. There was an empty desk beside him.

 _‘No way’_ Marco thought to himself.

The dark haired Cuban nearly let out a sigh in relief when he saw another empty desk at another corner of the class room. It was further than usual from the other desks, but what the heck. Marco quickly went over to that desk before the teacher walked inside. He set his backpack beside the desk before sitting on the chair that accompanied it.

Marco immediately felt the support under the chair creak. Before he had any time to look at what was wrong, the support broke off from the chair, causing him and the chair itself to drop to the ground. Everyone’s heads immediately snapped towards Rubio’s direction, taken aback from the loud noise.

Rubio’s face turned red; his embarrassment shooting up from the charts. He sat there with his chair on the floor, the legs of the seat beside him. He saw that Ted had noticed him too which just made things worse. With all honesty, Marco thought it would have been more bearable if there were a few laughs, but it was completely silent. Besides his bottom hurting, which he was always landing on for some reason, this just made him all the more uncomfortable.

“Are you alright?” The teacher asked, holding a hand to help Marco up.

Marco nodded, pulling himself up with the help of her.

“Good, good,” The teacher laughed, “You must be the new student so you didn’t know any better. It’s our mistake; the janitors should have taken this desk out long ago.”

“It’s fine,” Marco quietly said. _What a great way to start the first day of this class._

“There’s actually one empty desk beside Mr. Cruz,” The teacher said. Marco’s heart panged at the sound of that name. _Fuck._ He was going to have to sit next to him, “Mr. Cruz raise your hand so he can find you.”

Marco saw Ted Cruz hesitate for a moment. Marco’s heartbeat started racing; he had no idea why he was so nervous all of a sudden. He surely wasn’t intimidated by the guy…maybe he was? He wasn’t so sure anymore. Marco knew where to go, but he was waiting for Cruz to raise his hand. He felt sweat form at the edge of his hands once Ted finally raised his hand. Much to Marco’s surprise, he didn’t look annoyed. He had a straight expression. Maybe he was laughing inside at Marco’s chair incident. Marco pursed his lips before picking up his backpack and making his way to the seat beside Ted.

He sat down, trying his best to not to make eye contact with him. He was too humiliated to.

“Okay, today we’re going to start off with a little group assignment,” The teacher began, “You all will be getting in pairs.”

 “We don’t need to go straight into the next chapter, especially since we have a new student with us, so it will be fitting if we start today’s class like this,” She continued. She walked over to her desk and picked up a large stack of papers, “On each sheet of paper is a topic on what’s being talked about lately in regards to politics. From each topic, you and your partner will find a stance to agree on and convince to the class on why that stance is the best one.”

Marco looked at the student to the left of him. He was whispering to a few of his friends, so Marco assumed he wouldn’t be able to work with him. When he was about to scan the room for a potential partner, the teacher continued to talk.

“I’ll be the one assigning partners, so you all don’t take forever to find one.”

As the teacher was handing out sheets she told the students sitting right next to each other to work together. When Marco thought this day couldn’t get any worse, it did. He saw his teacher finally make her way to his desk.

“You two will be working together,” The teacher said, motioning towards Marco and Ted. She handed a sheet to Marco before heading to the next two desks. Marco just about wanted to bang his head on the desk by now.

When Marco quickly glanced at the sheet of paper to see what topic the teacher assigned them. He saw Immigration written in large letters. When he was about to hand it to Ted, he froze. He recollected over what happened in the office. He had no idea what came over him in the next few seconds.

“I want to try out again.”

Marco couldn’t believe he just said that. It seemed so out of the blue, but he had a feeling he would regret it if he didn’t. Besides, he didn’t have any dignity to loose after falling straight on his ass in front of the whole class. Ted raised his eyebrows, looking at Marco as if he had lost it. Marco stared him down, waiting for an answer. Ted shook his head.

“Right now I want to get this assignment done, especially since the teacher assigned me with you,” Ted replied, he sounded annoyed alright.

 “Fine, then I’ll ask Jeb to do it.”

“He can’t accept you without my approval.”

“Oh?” Marco said, “I don’t remember you ever saying that.”

Ted frowned. Marco was actually right, but he immediately brushed that thought off.

“So it’s settled. I’ll meet with you guys after school-” Marco shrugged; he couldn’t help but to let out a victorious smile.

“No you won’t,” Ted cut him off, “Turns out I’m closing tryouts. I don’t know what I was thinking when I said we needed six members.”

Marco’s smile immediately diminished. _Could he do that?_ His jaw twitched when he could sense the arrogance coming out of Ted’s voice. He was playing him for a fool.

“Besides, we don’t need someone with a short fuse to be in the team,” Ted continued, “We take the debate club here very seriously, especially when we hold regional competitions. We can’t have you storming off the stage when a moderator asks you a hard question.”

Marco hesitated; that horrid moment popping up for the 100th time in his head.

“I-it wasn’t like me,” Marco nervously said, his confidence sinking, “I knew you were purposely trying to keep me out of the team so I let my anger get the better of me.”

“Exactly,” Ted said, then clarified, “You’ll go on an emotional tirade once a hard question is asked.”

Marco was speechless.  He was about ready to yell a bunch of obscenities, especially when he caught Ted smirking. Marco absolutely loathed this guy. The way he spoke and the way he spoke to him as if he were inferior absolutely riled him up. _Wait a second._ Rubio immediately snapped out of it. Ted was _trying_ to make him angry on purpose, so he could prove his point. To Marco’s misfortune, it was working so far. He wasn’t called smart for nothing.

“Okay, but you really were trying to keep me out. You even admitted it now,” Marco said after regaining his composure, “When Jeb and Kasich joined, the questions you asked them were a lot easier than the ones you asked me.”

Marco knew Ted couldn’t walk around this.

“Fine, I’ll be completely honest,” He said, “I really don’t like you, at all. And you come off a bit as an airhead.”

“I knew it!” Marco exasperatedly said, letting his guard down, “Wow…and I’m not even surprised. I could take this to…whoever deals with this stuff…and complain to them about your unfair practices.”

“Feel free to do that if you want to disband the whole club. Your chances of joining will be impossible by then,” Ted replied; irritation visible in his voice. He didn’t expect the younger male to say that. Marco on the other hand knew Ted wouldn’t be able to contain his collected visage if he kept going like that. Rubio wanted to take Ted down a notch from his high pedestal.

“So you’ll have to let me try out once more. It’s only fair to do since you purposely tried to fail me,” Marco almost smiled to himself, glad that Ted’s unhinged way of speaking was starting to crack.

“No.”

Marco waited for him to say more, but he didn’t. He was quite livid with his one-worded answer. Was he so easily going to let the club get disbanded? Ted wasn’t that type of person, or at least Marco thought so; he was the type who was extremely dedicated to the debate club. But deep down, Marco didn’t want to complain to the school. If he did, there was no way he could join…as Ted said. Not only did he really wanted to be a part of the debate club, he wanted to show Ted that he could be good at what he did. He would have to find some other way join since this plan wouldn’t work.

“How about-” Marco was immediately cut off by the teacher.

“Alright I’ve given you enough time to come up with your talking points for each of your topics!” She said, “Each group will have three minutes to explain their positions on these issues.”

“Oh fuck,” Rubio muttered. Ted simply rolled his eyes; Marco kept badgering him on about the club so he had to place the blame on him.

The two were so busy with their talking, that they forgot to start on the group project.

“Okay, you two go first, and stand up where everyone can see you,” The teacher said to another group. The two other students stood up and began to recite their topic.

Marco’s eyes widened, what were they going to do?

“Let me see the paper,” Ted said, unfazed by this. He referred to the paper that the teacher gave them; it sat under Rubio’s arm.

“It says Immigration,” Marco said, his nervousness crawling back, “…What exactly do you want to talk about?”

Marco felt awkward as ever; he was actually going to have to work with him. At this point, he thought it was going to be impossible to come up with a talking point before the teacher would have to call on them.

“We’ll go over how giving a pathway for millions of undocumented immigrants to citizenship is detrimental to our country,” Ted said. To his own dismay, Marco was quite impressed at how Cruz could easily come up with such a topic so fast. The only problem was that Marco didn’t agree with the topic.

“I don’t think it’s detrimental exactly.” Marco shrugged. He was unfazed when Ted gave him a cold expression, “What? The teacher said to do a topic we can both agree on…”

“Explain why it isn’t detrimental then-”

“Guys! We’re listening to another group present, so please don’t talk when they’re talking.” The teacher interjected.

 After the next five groups were called onto present, it was finally Ted’s and Marco’s turn. Marco bit his lip; he looked at Ted who didn’t seem to be shaken at all. How exactly were they going to do this.

“Stand up so everyone else can see you.”

Ted stood up from his seat before Marco did the same.

“If you want to get credit, I’ll do all the talking points and you just agree with me.” Ted quietly said to him.

Marco almost scoffed at this, but didn’t say anything. The guy was too pompous for his own good.

“…Marco and I came to the conclusion that providing a pathway to citizenship is harmful to our society. Not only is it unfair to the many immigrants that immigrate legally, it takes away possible jobs from citizens.”

Marco let his fervor get the better of him. He didn’t want Ted to steal all the spotlight. Maybe he was being childish, but he didn’t care at this point.

“What do you suppose we do about the millions of undocumented immigrants then?” He asked.

“As I was saying…” Ted continued, shooting Marco an irritated glare, “It’s important to crack down and deport illegal immigrants before we secure our borders.”

Marco simply ignored this, “Are you going to go door to door to deport them all? A lot of money and resources will be used if we do it that way, and if that happens, how do you plan on keeping them out?”

He had no idea why he was doing this; maybe it was to get back at Ted. Either that, or it was to show him that he was capable of starting a good debate.

Ted chucked, an arrogant grin escaping his mouth, “Obviously not, Marco.”

Rubio almost sneered at the patronizing tone of voice Ted used to say his name.

“If you have some semblance of knowledge in politics you’ll know that millions of undocumented immigrants have been deported before,” Ted argued, his patience wearing thin, then repeated, “If we secure our borders, we can control the immigration problem.”

“You didn’t answer my second question though. How do you plan on keeping them out?” Marco pressed.

“By building a wall.”

“Wouldn’t that add a crazy amount to our federal debt-”

“Guys!” The teacher hissed, interrupting Marco mid-sentence. Ted and Marco turned their heads towards their teacher, surprised at her brash interruption. Marco glanced around the classroom; the other students were astonished yet amused at their bickering. He nervously scratched the back of his head.

“This isn’t a debate! You both were supposed to come to an agreement on a topic, but it seems like you two were too busy arguing with each other,” She continued, “I’ll have to give you half credit for this assignment since you managed to engage the entire class.”

“S-sorry,” Marco said; Ted remained silent.

“I’ll be willing to give you two a second chance if you work together and give me an argument that you both agree on during office hours.”

Ted and Marco gave each other disgusted looks before looking back at the teacher. As much as an overachiever Ted was, he was never going to work with Marco again.

**xxxxxx**

Once class was over, Marco began to pack his supplies.

“If you’re thinking about coming to debate club room, don’t,” Ted said; it was as if he could read his mind.

When Marco was about to say something, Ted briskly left the classroom. The Cuban sighed. Although he wasn’t going to tell the school about Ted giving him an unfair chance, but he wasn’t going to back down.

 

 

 

 

 


End file.
